It’s been about 14-15 years since I drove over lower Wildrose Road. Then and for quite a few years previous it was a mix of pavement, broken pavement and dirt due to repeated flash flooding. At times it was closed for lengthy periods until it could be repaired after flooding.
I remember a time when the road was fully paved, but I imagine the county finally gave up because nature is a more powerful force. I assume Inyo County still has jurisdiction over the road after the expansion and monument > park status change in 1995.
As for roads being closed entering the park, I get confused over the road from Sand Spring up Oriental Wash. I tried once to head up there in 2000 only to find a closure sign and barricade. The last time I traveled the road through Oriental Wash was in 2008 and I accessed it from the mouth of Tule Canyon just inside Nevada. That road was recently graded and angled over to the old road out of the park and up Oriental Wash. Esmeralda County annually grades the roads in the Gold Mountain country and sometimes they slightly alter their route depending on what antics nature did since the last time they came through.
As for my sources, I remember reading somewhere about the particular superintendent whose motivation was to remove historical sites except for native American in the late 1960s; but I forget where I read it. Wildrose and the Skidoo mill office buildings atop the knoll were razed; Wildrose in 1966, Skidoo in 1969 if memory serves me right.
When Alan Patera and I were researching in preparation for the book WESTERN PLACES: SKIDOO!, we tried to invoke the Freedom of Information Act regarding the razing of the office complex, but got nowhere and nothing. I remember being in the archives at Cow Creek around 1995 or so and seeing a 8x10 black and white photo of the buildings burning but at the time wasn’t working on any project involving Skidoo and dismissed it, giving it little thought. But I noted it in my research notes. Later, when Alan and I were collaborating, I again visited the archives at Cow Creek when Alan and I were working on the book and looked but couldn’t find the photo. Linda Green was in charge of the archives then, but she was on vacation. The woman substituting for her knew nothing of the photo.
I interviewed George Pipkin via letters shortly before his death, he living with his daughter Myrtle Murchison in Washington state at the time. Unfortunately my focus was on Joe Simpson’s skull so never touched base with him on the destruction of Wildrose. He died in the early 1990s.
I remember a time when the road was fully paved, but I imagine the county finally gave up because nature is a more powerful force. I assume Inyo County still has jurisdiction over the road after the expansion and monument > park status change in 1995.
As for roads being closed entering the park, I get confused over the road from Sand Spring up Oriental Wash. I tried once to head up there in 2000 only to find a closure sign and barricade. The last time I traveled the road through Oriental Wash was in 2008 and I accessed it from the mouth of Tule Canyon just inside Nevada. That road was recently graded and angled over to the old road out of the park and up Oriental Wash. Esmeralda County annually grades the roads in the Gold Mountain country and sometimes they slightly alter their route depending on what antics nature did since the last time they came through.
As for my sources, I remember reading somewhere about the particular superintendent whose motivation was to remove historical sites except for native American in the late 1960s; but I forget where I read it. Wildrose and the Skidoo mill office buildings atop the knoll were razed; Wildrose in 1966, Skidoo in 1969 if memory serves me right.
When Alan Patera and I were researching in preparation for the book WESTERN PLACES: SKIDOO!, we tried to invoke the Freedom of Information Act regarding the razing of the office complex, but got nowhere and nothing. I remember being in the archives at Cow Creek around 1995 or so and seeing a 8x10 black and white photo of the buildings burning but at the time wasn’t working on any project involving Skidoo and dismissed it, giving it little thought. But I noted it in my research notes. Later, when Alan and I were collaborating, I again visited the archives at Cow Creek when Alan and I were working on the book and looked but couldn’t find the photo. Linda Green was in charge of the archives then, but she was on vacation. The woman substituting for her knew nothing of the photo.
I interviewed George Pipkin via letters shortly before his death, he living with his daughter Myrtle Murchison in Washington state at the time. Unfortunately my focus was on Joe Simpson’s skull so never touched base with him on the destruction of Wildrose. He died in the early 1990s.
DAW
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.